September 4, 2006

Being True to my Church

I’m having church issues this week. As many of you know, I have
attended Calvary Chapels since I was born-again back in 1981. My first
Calvary was Costa Mesa and my first pastor was Chuck Smith. I still think
of it as my home church since I’ve moved around this country a lot.
Pastor Chuck and I would agree on all the essentials of the faith and even
on many non-essentials. But, because he pastors a mega-church, I’ve
never actually met him face to face. He doesn’t know me, though he knows
of me, however I can finish his sentences, I’m that familiar with his
teaching.

Since the late 1990s, I have had various run-ins with his son, Chuck
Smith Jr., pastor of Capo Beach Calvary. Things came to a crescendo last
year when Jr. took a sabbatical to a Catholic monastery and put some real
new-agers in his pulpit. I reported these events to the Body of Christ and
even leafleted CBC to warn the people about a particular guest speaker who
has a ministry called "The
Vortex." Out of my love for my fellow Calvary Chapel saints, I
felt compelled in my spirit to put my neck on the chopping block to try
and sound the warning to them.

Does that mean I fancy myself as some sort of end-times prophetess with
a ministry of rebuke? Hardly! I only did what I think any discerning
Christian has a responsibility to do. It doesn’t take some special
calling to warn those you love from following after a false teacher. EVERY
Christian should be doing that! We ARE our brothers (and sisters) keeper.
If I were a man-pleaser I would avoid controversy that would put me on the
outs with my own fellowship. But looking the other way enables the enemy
to poison the body of Christ.

Throughout my confrontations directly and indirectly to CBC, I have
appealed to Pastor Chuck Sr. by letter and email – mostly just being
ignored. I knew I wouldn’t’ win any favors with this man I have always
respected. (After all, blood is thicker than water, as they say.) I
appealed to him as Scripture prompts me to:

"Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; and the younger
men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with
all purity" (1 Tim. 5:1-2).

And so Saturday the Los Angeles Times published an article
called "Father,
Son, and Holy Rift" about the recent severing of CBC from the
Calvary Chapel Fellowship of churches. And I seemed to be the one singled
out for stirring things up that led to this division of churches. The
article accurately quoted my commentaries from my website. Pastor Chuck
Sr. was quoted saying something against bloggers, not singling any
particular ones out, but the story directed his comments at me.

"He (Pastor Chuck Sr.) shrugs off the controversy as the result of
critics who ‘get on and blog their ignorance,’ adding: ‘If you don't
march to their drumbeat, they begin to pick at you, and once you put on
that hypercritical mode, you can find plenty of things to criticize.’"

This falsely characterizes me much in the same way as the LA Times
reporter falsely characterized both of us as hell-fire & brimstone
fundamentalists.

The truth is I fellowship with people from other churches, or even
those with no organized churches, who don’t necessarily believe the way
I do – at least in the non-essentials of the faith. There is plenty of
room for disagreement. Where I draw the line is with those who are
bringing in what the Bible calls "doctrines of demons." And I do
my best to convince my true brothers and sisters in the faith not to
compromise with such imposters so as not to bring leaven into the church,
which once it takes hold is virtually impossible to remove. It’s at that
time that the entire church structure totally breaks down and becomes
apostate and those who manage not to get pulled down heed the Lord’s
call to "Come out of her, My people." The Body of Christ is
becoming a leavened loaf of bread due to our head-in-the-sand mentality of
tolerance. We don’t want to be unkind to false teachers because, after
all, they name the name of Christ and who are we to judge?

But Scripture says: "You cannot drink the cup
of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table
and of the table of demons" (1 Cor. 10:21).

Kim Clement at Jubilee

Another battle I have fought within Calvary Chapel fellowship for the
past ten years is the compromise with TBN, particularly with the Harvest
Crusades. In my last Reflection I reported that Greg Laurie is allowing
TBN-affiliated churches to participate in the follow-up counseling. One
church that I was particularly alarmed by was Jubilee Christian Center in
San Jose, knowing that they were hosting false prophet Kim Clement this
past weekend. My husband and I went to check it out and we were grieved by
what we saw.

The so-called prophet was to do a three-day meeting beginning Friday
night. The place was packed and it could hold well over 2,000 people. In
the foyer near the Kim Clement table, there was a counter that had Harvest
Crusade literature, including the "prayer guide" for the Greg
Laurie event and the flyer inviting people to attend. Some of the prayer
requests in the guide include "Pray that the HP Pavilion will be full
for all four events." Seems that’s the prayer request that Greg
Laurie’s ministry will go to almost any ends to make happen.

After a round of songs about stomping on the devil, Pastor Dick Bernal
broke the "bad news" that disappointed many who drove from far
away just to see this "great prophet, Kim Clement." Kim couldn’t
make it because he had legal matters to attend to in reference to a new
house he was building in Burbank. Bernal also made reference to Clement’s
new facility in North Hollywood and said he himself is an overseer for Kim’s
ministry and their church donated $200,000 towards that building project.

We showed up the next night to another packed out house. Kim arrived,
wearing tight blue jeans, a collared shirt, and a thin pull-over sweater
over the shirt. I’ve seen him do this many times – even in the middle
of the summer in the heat and it doesn’t take long for his chest to be
covered in sweat. And he always draws attention to his sweaty body and
apologizes for it in an off-handed way as if to say that he puts his whole
body into the music. (I’ve heard him say on TBN that he gets so into his
piano playing that his fingertips get bloody – his own weird brand of
stigmata.) It’s designed to be very sensual, carnal.

His show consists of his exuberant piano playing while singing supposed
impromptu spirit-led prophetic sayings to a droning rock beat. It was like
being at a rock concert with the audience dancing, swaying arms in the
air, and kicking off their shoes to glide back and forth in the front of
the "altar." My husband and I were the only ones we could see
not joining in. We sat in the balcony to observe. Clement prefaced his
piano playing by putting down those who preach that time is almost up and
Jesus’ coming is near. "Sometimes we rebuke him when he comes cause
he has various appearances," said Clement. During the performance,
some of the "prophetic utterances" Clement belted out were:

He (God) is an unaccountable impulse.

He is doing insane things. His presence is here. This is the season
of multiplication.

We are to capture the future to bring glory into being.

God is bringing a spirit of acceleration.

I can hear the sound of something being born in this place tonight.
I can feel it.

I look in my eyes and look into the future.

I can see myself with abundance.

The season to multiply has come. Now is the time to multiply.

A spirit of exhilaration has come upon my people, sayeth the Lord.

We’ve got plenty of time says God.

We’ve entered into a 7-month promise of rest.

You will not be in the battle field. The time of rest from your
enemies has come.

America will pioneer the rest; the greatest revival the world has
ever seen is going to come.

I am going to make this country independent of the Middle East.

This nation is about to pioneer a move of the spirit around the
world.

Clement’s Psychics in Hollywood

He capped off his playing with a "testimony" about how he is
feared by the psychics in Hollywood because of their jealousy over his
abilities. He told a story of red-headed psychic that attended one of his
meetings and he called her up front and she was cursing him under her
breath. When he leaned in to speak to her she slapped him across the face
– twice! Then he prophesied over her and won her over to use her
"God-given" gifts for the kingdom of God instead of the devil.
He said that psychics have true gifts, and "we’re going to get them
to use their gifts for God and raise them up as prophets."

The total irony of this is that in my last Reflection from two weeks
ago, I wrote about four fictional characters and what could possibly
happen to those who would attend the coming Harvest Crusade, considering
that aberrational churches were involved in the follow-up counseling. The
one I called "Mindy" who was sent to Jubilee was a psychic and
was told to use her gifts to become a prophetess. And that was pure
fiction based upon hearing such things on TBN in the past. And lo and
behold, Clement affirms this unbiblical practice from the pulpit of Dick
Bernal who nodded in approval.

At the end of the evening, after getting the entire crowd whooped up in
a state of adulation – many of them sweating as much as the prophet
so-called, comes the plug for money. Clement tells them that the only way
everything he promised (such as a 7-month time of rest and financial
prosperity) can come about is to seal the deal with money. Give big as the
spirit tells you. It will be a big amount because of the big payoff.
Everyone took out the checkbooks and began writing checks. The offering at
the beginning of the evening by Bernal for Jubilee was not that
impressive. The bucket went by empty in our row. But when Kim made this
spiritual blackmail appeal, the buckets filled up. When he prayed over the
offering he had the congregation repeat after him, "Thank you Father
for your Son Jesus. Thank you Father for your prophet (i.e. Kim
Clement)."

Sunday morning’s show was more of the same. He had the crowd shouting
"fire" over and over again for five minutes straight. He again
said that the Lord told him to challenge the psychic community. He
compared his dealing with the elderly lady with the red hair to the
apostle Paul who struck the sorcerer with blindness -- he has stricken the
spiritual blindness on the psychic community. "Physics from all over
Hollywood are being raised up to be prophets for the kingdom of God."
He said of the red haired woman who hit him: "this woman has been
chosen to release the prophetic to the nation." She went along with
it. He concluded that the psychics in North Hollywood have all been turned
around.

Kim Clement revealed what matters the most to him: money. Sunday’s
offering was similar to the night before. What they were paying for this
time was the promise of God via Clement that they would all live to be 100
years old and never have any strokes or heart attacks. "Show me what
I must give to the prophet and if you don’t have anything – if you
have no money, take a button, an earring, or anything and put it in the
offering. No one should leave here without giving to the prophet. Now we
can enter the promise by doing something unusual. Before reaching
something great, something unusual must be done." And the people went
diving for their checkbooks.

TBN’s Harvest Crusade

Sadly, Dick Bernal got up at the Sunday meeting and happily announced
that of the 1,000 volunteer follow-up workers for the upcoming Harvest
Crusade, 300 of them are from Jubilee Christian Center.

Recalling the events of the last few days reminded me of a sermon I had
heard many, many, years ago. It was called "The
Pillow Prophets" and the speaker was David Wilkerson. I found it
online and it’s worth reading to ponder just how much Kim Clement
qualifies as one of the end times’ "pillow prophets." He noted
that "Ezekiel stood alone against all the false prophets of Israel.
These prophets would have nothing to do with the message of righteousness
and impending judgment. Instead, they prophesied an era of peace, ease and
prosperity."

The problems with Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusade compromising is
really nothing new. We have made many attempts in the past to plead with
Laurie not to send new converts into the snare of the enemy by allowing
false teachers to get at them. Jesus said that "whosoever shall
offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the
sea" (Mark 9:42). However, none of our efforts have made a
difference.

In 1997, when my old church Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia was involved
in the Harvest Crusade, I pointed out to the assistant pastor, Jerry
Paradise (yes, that’s his real name!) that one of the co-sponsoring
churches was very questionable. They were currently involved in the
"holy laughter and spiritual drunkenness" fad and the following
week after the Harvest Crusade they were having a week-long seminar with
the Kansas City Prophets, including ones that have since been exposed for
using their so-called prophetic office to disrobe women. He wouldn’t
listen to me and asked me to fax the documentation to our senior Pastor
Joe. I did so (see
the original fax) though I was told it wouldn’t make a bit of
difference. So I sent the material knowing the outcome would not be
favorable. However, they are accountable to God for what I gave them,
which included a flyer for the upcoming false prophets seminars along with
my notes from watching the Harvest Crusade on TBN from two years earlier
that demonstrated how TBN used Calvary Chapel and Greg Laurie to validate
themselves (see
link).

I also wrote Greg Laurie directly in 2001 asking to meet with him about
my concerns with his TBN connections but he did not give me the courtesy
of a response. (see
link

)

I am not the one being untrue to my church – quite the contrary. I am
a member of the Body of Christ, which is made up of the called-out ones
from any church body or denomination they happen to gather together in.
That is the church to which I am a faithful member. It has no label; it is
filled with those who the world hates. I am true to that Church.

♥♥♥

"If I just feed the flock and not warn the
flock, I may only be fattening up the flock for the kill" -- Jon
Courson, Applegate Christian Fellowshp - [CSN 12/28/00]

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